LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—Veteran British sports administrator Craig Reedie, a former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and a key figure in London’s successful bid to stage the 2012 Olympic Games, has died aged 84 it was announced on Monday.

“With Sir Craig’s passing, we have lost a true gentleman and clean sport champion,” said current WADA president Witold Banka in a statement.

“He was a man of great integrity and, as a sportsman at heart, he believed that sport shows us it is always possible to do better –- a belief he applied to his leadership of WADA.”

Reedie was an international badminton player, representing Great Britain and in 1981 he was elected president of the International Badminton Federation, where he succeeded in having the sport included at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Reedie chaired the BOA between 1992 and 2005, before going on to become the president of WADA, from 2014 to 2019, as well as a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee.

In his WADA role he was widely criticised by athlete groups and national athlete bodies for the organisation’s 2018 decision to lift a three-year suspension on Russian athletes for “state-sponsored” doping imposed following the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

By that time, however, he had already played a central role in bringing the 2012 Olympics to London, when Paris were thought to be the favourites to host the event.

London 2012 bid chief Sebastian Coe, now the president of World Athletics, paid tribute to “my mentor wise counsel, passionate advisor, and great friend” in an X post.

Coe, a two-time 1500 metres Olympic champion, added: “Without Craig and his leadership of the British Olympic Association, we may never have won the right to host London 2012.”